Product Review

Product Review

Erica Plessis is the owner of Choose Natural, a business that recently opened in Creston BC (Canada). Walking into the store, I couldn’t help but experience how open, clean and natural it felt. The well-lit room is lined with a great deal of Canadian made products. You’ll find Healing Hollow  organic, wild-harvested essential oil products and bath-bombs “loaded with omega cluster, vitamins, minerals, plant sterols, GLA, CBD” that are hand-made locally (Cranbrook, BC – Canada). Dotting the shelves periodically are beautifully planted succulents from a local nursery and whimsical wood signs made by a local artist. You won’t find drops and tinctures here however, but instead nutritional oil specially designed for humans and another for pets. You’ll also find creams and pet treats amongst many other health products. Erica tells us that the most popular products are the nutritional oil, the gel-cap supplements and the topical cream.

Erica is a working mom with a lot on her shoulders… one of her children has a chronic illness. While I will not share the details online here, the experience led this highly trained recover and rehabilitation nurse to explore this business as a viable option. Her mother is also a specially trained nurse, and between them they offer decades of nursing experience and medical education. 

Before they began their personal journey with CBD oils, they took intensive courses to learn about the endocannabiniod system and once they were convinced of CBD oil’s effectiveness and saw the results personally, they decided to open the business. I don’t think Erica could have done this without the support of her amazing mom, who takes up the slack when Erica is unable to be at the new store. Now before I go any farther on this review, let me share with you some of the important information about Choose Natural…

Their Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/ChooseNaturalCBD/

New Store Location: Creston Valley Mall, near Save-On-Foods grocery store

When I met Erica to talk about this review project, she was full of information and I gratefully absorbed every minute she had to spare to learn how CBD oils work with the body to fight diseased and disabled cells, while encouraging the creation of new healthy cells at the same time. I learned how different combinations of the elements found in the healthy seed are often used in various concoctions – however Erica believes in companies that use the whole seed and the whole plant because that way all the goodness is there.

Today, we will review 2 of Erica’s products: Mari-Mend and Cannabis Sativa Seed Oil Plus – both produced by the Stephen Health Agency Inc. (NS - Canada). Melanie Stephen, president of the company, tells us their products are non-GMO, free of pesticide and heavy metals and their company runs annual charity fundraisers via their Paws4Paws and Hope4Humanity campaigns – donating a portion of their sales over a specific period of time.

I’ll start with Mari-Mend ($25 Canadian) since it was the first product I tried. Being garden season, my hands were taking a beating and I noticed that some eczema was coming back. Using the prescription and B-vitamincream I use to control this when it starts up, it got better but the stage of healing is itchy and irritating with really dry, cracked skin. I reached for the jar at that moment and put some on… and whoa! What a relief! 

There’s a pleasant peppermint scent to this product and while it does contain oils it does not take long to soak in and begin its work, and I’ve never noticed a stain on any cloth surface yet. Hemp flour, cannabis seed oil, aloe vera (soothes), coconut oil (moisturizes and softens), bee’s wax, ginger root oil (toning and anti-oxidant), and peppermint (cools and calms) and a few other natural ingredients are to be found in this product. Don’t, of course, get this in your eyes or rub around the eyes. 

I've been crazy busy with processing from the garden - every single day there's a bowl or two coming in (currently: blackberries, peach-coloured raspberries, gold and red tomatoes, purple grapes, red, orange and gold peppers, various onions and herbs). So my poor hands!!!! I've been finding (via stress and allergies from forest fire smoke this year) the eczema has been sticking around and blooming up then going down, etc. all season long. 

Now, don’t get me wrong – this topical cream will not stop eczema from flaming up, but it will encourage the healing process once the condition has calmed down. I was impressed enough to become a committed customer for the Mari-Mend topical cream product. I’ve tried this on my rough garden-damaged knees and heels, and Dave has tried it on his abused hands… and in just a few days we can both see a noticeable improvement. However – for a fairly slick lotion product, it was unfortunately packaged in a dark brown glass container with slick sides (no grip built in to the jar design) as such this small bottle slipped easily out of my hand and hit a soft-wood pine coffee table and shattered down one side… an unfortunate packaging design choice. I was, however, able to pick out the glass and continue to use the product, but had to repackage it.

Ok so let’s move onto the final product I was asked to look into: MM (medical marijuana) Cannabis Sativa Seed Oil ($30 Canadian). My first impression was that this product is similar to hemp or flax oil sold in similar black plastic bottles through most health stores to provide those very important nutrients we are often lacking in, such as the EFA’s. 

The product label does not list the ingredients however it does mention nutritional yeast and the company website explains that this yeast offers many nutrients, B vitamins (something I lack), 16 amino acids and 15 minerals. The 12-oz. black plastic bottle has a flip top, squeeze style lid, like those you’d find on yellow mustard or salad dressing. 

The company rep explained to me that this and the Medi-Paws product are in fact the same, however the pet product is not just labeled as such to reach a select market; they also use that product for one of their charitable fundraising campaigns for pet shelters. So I tested it out on our special princess Skyla (dog) who is the pickiest eater, she will pick out anything she doesn't like or think she's being fooled into eating, spits it out and eats only what she wants to out of her dish. The other dog just gobbles everything gratefully. lol But when I put that supplement oil - that old Skyla grandma dog gobbled it right up. She's had the best appetite (!) and for her, that's something. 

Ok, so the recommended dosage is at least 1 tablespoon per day. For Dave and I, we find that is a lot of oil to swallow at once. Many years ago I tried flax and hemp oil and it was recommended to mix in with a strong juice and drink that to ease the process. A friend recommended drizzling it on food and I found my favourite was on salad… and definitely not a tablespoon at a time, or even in one day as I just don't like eating oily foods - I’d recommend spreading that tablespoon over lunch and dinner meals. For the dogs, we simply squeeze out a little more than half-Tablespoon worth on the food in their dish and give it a little stir. They lick those bowls clean!

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